New to the SDR community. Is there a "sticky" somewhere on a recommended PC? I have been a Mac person for years so need some assistance. Will be running with a 4K monitor as recommended in another forum (Sony BRAVIA XBR X800E Series XBR 43X800E).

Not really, Loren. Perhaps this will become one if there are enough substantive replies.

There are a number of interesting threads in this subforum already, including one about how to use LatencyMon to test your PC's performance in a way that is directly related to PowerSDR processing requirements, and one about the minimum amount of computer performance required.

The reality is you can get away with a remarkably meager PC if you are willing to make some trade-offs on performance. Using a sample rate of only 96KHz is a big trade. Not running anything else on the PC other than PowerSDR mRX is another.

However...if you've just blown $2K on a radio, consider that you can get a lot of PC for $1K. Personally, I would make the following recommendations:

- Solid state drive--it's the single most important thing you can do to improve your PC experience. You don't need it for PowerSDR performance, but having one will make you so happy you won't care about anything else

- 8 GB of RAM, 16 is better--this is a general Windows performance issue, PowerSDR mRX is not a RAM hog.

- NVIDIA graphics card with CUDA processing. PowerSDR doesn't use the CUDA stuff right now, but other programs may in the future (e.g. Simon Brown's SDR Console). You'll need a good graphics card for a 4K monitor anyway.

- Gigabit NIC. You only need 100BASE-T right now, but the future will require GigE.

- Windows 10, of course. 7 is no longer supported. Take the time and disable the privacy intruding stuff if it bothers you.

- Any Logitech mouse with Hyperscroll. Hyperscroll makes tuning in PowerSDR very knob-like.

- A wireless keyboard and mouse are more RFI resistant. On the other hand, a fancy, illuminated gaming keyboard will let you color code the keys that work in PowerSDR.

- Make sure you bond and ground your PC just like any other piece of station equipment.

- Test the hell out of it with LatencyMon and make sure LatencyMon gives it a passing grade.

Thanks Scott. I am looking at the following from newegg. It seems reasonable. I priced out individual components and it seemed to be more than if I purchased pre-built. Is the 3GB video frame buffer memory an issue?

That will be an above average PC, and you should be very happy with it. It is capable of running dual 4K monitors

Just make sure you take all of the "crapware" off of it when you get it, and study the LatencyMon thread and make sure it is providing good performance in that respect. If it is not, it will not be a hardware problem, not at that price point. It is almost always a software/configuration/driver problem.

Make sure to let us know how you like it. If this is your first SSD then prepare to be astounded, speed-wise.